Madness, Magic, and Quiet Trauma
by RandomCuteOtaku
Summary: A series of one-shots. Part 1: Lenalee asks the young historian to play with her, and Lavi wonders why a little orphan girl would keep her toys locked up in the attic.


_Written as a gift for a friend on tumblr. Rated T for gore and probable sensitive subject matter in later one-shots._

xxxx

"Shhhh…or they'll hear you.."

She crept up the ladder, her tiny toes smooshing dust bunnies between them, and tried her best not to sneeze. She did not want her new friend , the young historian, to think she was sick, or he would stop playing with her. Yes, he would most definitely stop playing. Nearly slipping on the last rung she clambered up onto the ledge and reached down a hand.

"Hurry! Before they catch us!"

"Alright, just give me a moment, my scarf keeps getting in the way!"

He ought to have stayed with the adults. Even if the conversation by the fireside was boring as hell, all about business and things he didn't care about, he could have read something, and at least then that wouldn't involve any climbing. Climbing only served to remind him of what might have happened with his parents. Possibilities that his grandad did not want him to think about. He was to block all of his past away, or he wouldn't be able to fulfill his purpose. His hand gripped the rung tighter, and the dust on his weathered fingers felt like blood. He wouldn't have missed this for the world.

This girl had a strangeness about her, like when someone's missing at the dinner table, or when someone doesn't come up quickly enough out of a pool. He wanted to find out what was missing from her pretty little head, and if it was worth taking note of. His grandad would be proud. Or so he hoped.

"Where did you say we were going again?"

"To the secret attic! To show you my fairies!"

She loved hearing the stories. Her brother would invite the historians over for tea sometimes. Not as party guests though those happened on Wednesdays and only then. That was different. With the Historians they came over to help her brother write his book and the other important thing with the patients that she wasn't supposed to know about but she did. Sometimes she'd sit on the steps and listen to them talk while the sun set over the buildings far across the streets, and hear tell of strange knights and weird lives lived by the sea and- oh she couldn't wait to show her friend how to fly, so that they could see it together.

She'd already taken his hand and helped him up, and now they were tip toeing across the ceiling, quiet as mice, towards a door that she'd found when her mum was still- yes, towards the secret door with fingers crossed and on her lips.

"Shhhh we don't want to wake them. Go slowly inside, I'll follow."

"Sh- shouldn't you open the door though? I can't see it very well.."

Gosh this isn't what he'd been expecting. Maybe a strange diary, kept like all kids do when they haven't anyone else to talk to. Or drawings (since it was unlikely in her situation that she had any paints) that she'd pin to the wall in her room and say "Oh, how nice it is of you, Lavi, to be interested in them, my paintings," and he'd smile all charming like he'd trained himself to and tell her that they were charming, even though they'd be mostly scribbles and illegible writings. Not a secret in a secret. And darn his eyepatch, mussing up his detective work! He wanted to know what made this girl tick, and he could only half see his destination! Absolute nonsense.

He bumbled around in the dark before hitting the wall, where there was no wall, and a hand, cold and soft, took his gently between it's fingers and pushed it at the knob, which was wet with something he couldn't see. He heard sniffling beside him, and decided that maybe the wet was tears. He froze.

"Wait, what's- what's wrong?"

"I hope you survive becoming one of them. I really like you. It's just that the fairies are always mean to my friends; they go cold before they get better."

She hoped he would make it though.

"Go inside."

"No, you know what, I don't think I will."

He was going to die if he did, he knew it. Should have stayed downstairs.

"I'll take it easy on the steps so you don't have to worry about me. Have fun up here doing whatever you do, little Lee."

"I knew it, I knew you would stop playing with me! But don't worry, don't worry, I'll show them to you and it will make it all better, right?"

She swung open the door before he could wiggle out of her grip.

"Aren't they beautiful, my fairies? If we both turn into them we'll be able to fly to the sea, won't that be wonderful?"

"Oh my God."

He hadn't thought it wouldn't be this bad. The smell of rotting flesh forces vomit out of him quicker than the mangled bodies does. In the sudden light he could see a table for operations, and metal tools and blood blood blood all over the floor and on the door and on her face, the little beautiful face of the girl crying before him, because she just wants a playmate, and all of her playmates lie on the ground, dead and flightless. An orphanage is no place for a scientist. They should have noticed sooner.

He didn't think he'd get the chance to tell his grandad what he found. He shouldn't have agreed to play and find out her secrets. He ought to have missed the world. What horrors. How fascinating. He was going to die.

"Teach me how to fly, little Lee."

"Absolutely, we'll dig out your wings when my brother comes up and then we'll fly to the sea and you and I will play forever."

She can't remember her mother or her father or anyone else. There was only ever her brother, and his strange desire to give her wings. When he found her finally found her she'd been broken, but he'd fixed her up all right. But he was all wonky and kept trying to fix her friends too. It's ok now though, because all of them had been girls, girls with long dark hair like her, and now she'd brought a boy, a boy with red hair and a perfect eyepatch on his perfect face and oh, she hoped she could keep him, her playmate.

A scream higher than the winds echoed around the complex, and she smiled and closed the door behind him.


End file.
